Five Peaks Challenge

For the last few years, James (M0JCQ) has thrown down the SOTA gauntlet to me to activate 5 x SOTA Summits along the English/Welsh border in one day. Of course, to make it more miserable he insists on doing this in the winter to earn the winter bonus for each of these 2 point summits gaining us 25 points in one day. Here are the summit details...

The following map shows the five, two point peaks (in light blue) as they sit in relation to one another. Alternatively you can view the two regions that these five summits sit in at sotamaps.org (give it a moment to load as it has to filter by regions). The five summits sit in the upper right of the GW/MW & G/WB regions in the Shropshire hills.

It is suggested that the hills are worked in the following order (or the reverse) to minimise travel.

Head due south down the track to SO301971 then turn south east just before the fence surrounding what looks like a ‘Christmas Tree farm’ and head up the steep lung-busting grassy slope to the summit. There is a wooden bench at the summit and a cairn that offers some shelter from the wind.

There is not a lot of parking space at the bottom of the track but it's possible to squeeze a car onto the verge on the adjoining road.

The climb is a medium difficulty with a (mostly) clear, well trodden path. Note that the top of the hill can be very boggy and the lower half of the path quite slippery in the wet on the descent.

As you crest the summit passing to the right of the toposcope there is a small depression in the grass (to the right) which offers some shelter. There is a large aerial array at the summit and VHF can suffer some interference from this but nothing too awful. The trig point has been replaced with a toposcope (original bits of the trig can be seen in the steps to the toposcope).

Titterstone Clee Hill G/WB-004

Latitude: N 52° 23' 51", Longitude: W 2° 36' 3"Grid Reference : SO591779QTH Locator: IO82QJTrig Point: TP6498 (Titterstone Clee)WAB: SO57Nearest Post Code: SY8 3NYHeight: 533mElevation/Distance: ~60m of ascent over a distance of 0.8km. A steep ascent if a direct route is taken but it's only a short distance. Time to ascend: 10 minutes ascent, 10 minutes descent.Parking options: Car park at SO593775 (post code SY8 3NY - N 52° 23' 40", W 2° 35' 56"). This will take you to Dhustone Lane off the A4117 Ludlow Road. Follow this lane to the very top of the hill until you arrive at the large car park on the left. Beware the potholes!

There are a number of routes up to the summit but we typically carry on west, north-west from the car park across a large open space then strike uphill from there aiming directly for the trig point (which cannot been seen until you crown the summit). There is a small hollow cairn near the trig point which can offer some shelter and also some buildings about 100m away (SO592779) which can also provide a wind break.